Travel Trauma and the creators are not affiliated with any country, company, or travel group mentioned in the podcast. All information provided is on an information only basis. Travel Trauma and the creators do not condone/responsible for any actions of the listens from the information gained from this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Brandon. And I'm Abby. And this is Travel Trauma, a podcast dedicated to sharing our traumatic travel experiences we've encountered during our trips.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Short disclaimer, our opinions and experiences are our own. This podcast is not meant to throw shade on any travel tour or location we have visited. So take everything with a grain of salt.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

A very large grain of salt.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Yeah. And we're the problem, so it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

It's yeah. I mean, we're on literally episode six of Portugal, and we thought this was the chillest trip that we've been on to to date.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Yeah, we got back and we were like, we're gonna have no content. We were too chill. We were not chill.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

It was live. We were not chill at all. We still have like one or two good solid episodes from YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

We really thought that we were chill and mature, and turns out we're the same as always.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Not chill at all. Maybe we should actually go to a beach and just sit there quietly.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I don't think we could be chill at a beach either.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

You're right. I I probably would play too many drunk games. Not be a good one.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I don't think we have it in us to go on a chill vacation.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I don't think we could sit still. Oh god. Anyway, this episode, you guys, we're gonna talk about Final Forest, which is the spooky treat.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Spooky.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah, it really was.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

It was cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

We're gonna talk about Seychelle Beach and the cafe parking.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Pool hopping, the natural pools, the cable call talk uh cable car to Mont Palace. We haven't talked about this yet, but there is a drink of Madeira called Pancha. So that enters the chat. Yes. We're gonna talk about Madeira Rum House and then Restaurant Informal. Yes. Yeah, so let's just jump right into it. Okay, so the last episode we ended at the bar, and Skye got back at 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning. 5 a.m. She got back at 5 a.m. and we don't understand how she's alive.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

She bounces back so quickly.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

We woke up at like 7:30.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

I don't understand. I would be, I was I was still tired and I went to bed at a reasonable time.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I was dying. And she was just there, probably sipping milk.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Sipping milk. Probably.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

She was like, I'm ready for this force.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Barry just really gets her back up.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

But that's where we ended on the last episode. And this morning we had to wake up early again. So we're up at 7:30. She's probably only gotten like an hour and a half to two hours of sleep.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I don't even think she slept. Probably not.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And the reason why we had to be up is you have to get to Final Forest early in the morning for the clouds to be everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

For it to be the spookiest, you have to get there early.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

And it's it's pretty spooky. I'm not gonna lie. Like the drive itself up there was really beautiful, actually. You go through like all these like roads with trees on both sides, and we saw a cow. I just wanted to throw that in there. I really like that cow. But a couple tips for you guys when you get to Panal Forest, like we said, get there early. But also bring a jacket and wear pants.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Forgot that like it was early in the morning and we were going up a mountain, and I was wearing like shorts and like a tank top, and I was like, oh.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

I I was too.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

And I put on my rain jacket, and then I used like our towel for the beach that we took from the Airbnb. And this is like not a thick towel. It's like one of those like those like quick dry quick dry towels, and I was using that as pants. Like I had it wrapped around my leg. I did too. I was really it was just like we are fashion icons of the spooky forest.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

We look disheveled for sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

But you gotta think about it. It's early in the morning, so it's obviously gonna be cooler, and then higher elevation, and then mixed with the fog and the clouds that are coming over the mountains.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

But we had to see the spooky trees, so so you get damp as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

So it's cold plus damp. So do not do what we do, be a little bit more prepared.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah, just like bring a jacket, wear pants.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Also, something to consider is we went at a time where nothing was fenced off.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah, and this happened recently, like when we got back, as they started fencing things off.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Apparently, people were walking all over the grounds and pretty much ruining the ground. So they fenced off the areas that actually you can walk through so that you're not ruining it for everybody else, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

And and that makes sense, but the fences, from what I've seen from the pictures, they they don't make it as spooky anymore. It's not as spooky anymore.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

It's not, but this reinforces what I'm saying from the get-go. Get there early because this is a popular tourist attraction now. Yeah, obviously, if they have to fence it off because of people, the amount of people, just keep that in the back of your head.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, I thought we were gonna get lost though, because there was no fence or anything, and you just kind of like walk out into the forest. It's just foggy. And it's just foggy and everything looks the same. I was like really trying to keep track of like where we were going. I was like, we can't make too many turns if we're never gonna find the car again.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Well, it was funny because like it's all these like bent trees, and it's like spooky trees. It it really was. We're joking about it, but it was kind of like it was eerie.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Like could somebody be murdered there? For sure. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Could they be hidden in one of those large trees? 100%. And then we would see people off in the distance, and then the fog was so dense, they just disappear.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah. I wonder if there's ever been a horror movie filmed here.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Don't go alone. You will be murdered.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

No, you won't be murdered because you might get lost.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

But there are like a lot of cows there too. So just find a cow.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah, I'm sure they're nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

But uh smooth transition there, but uh but also, you guys, another small thing before we move on. You can actually do hikes there. There are hiking trails, and I think I didn't realize this at first because I would have probably taken us on one of the hiking trails, but there are like hikes available in Fanal Forest. I'll drop a link below so you can look up where the trailheads are and like how long they are, but actually do one of them because I think that would have been really cool.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Should we go back?

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I don't know now because it's roped off.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Oh, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, oh well, sucks to suck, you guys. We got there at a good time.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

I'm sure it's still cool now. It's just you can't wander as far.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yes, but after this, this was like uh what, an hour stop?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yeah, like we weren't there like that long. Because I mean you walk in, you see the trees and the fog, and like we walked around for a bit and took some pictures, and we're still cold. So we were like, okay, it's time to go.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

So I wanted to do today, I wanted to go to Seychelle Beach, which is a black sand beach in Madeira. And I was like, this would be really cool because I was thinking about Iceland and the black sand beach there, which is becoming a theme. I was just like, I always want to see a black sand beach, like black sand, of course.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Of course, I'm there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Like regular tan sand.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

No, that's not it.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

No, that's trash.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Um, I think it's still fine. But the weather today, as we said, I mean it was cold in the morning, but today's weather was not, it wasn't, you know, screaming beach.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

It wasn't. And by the time we got down to the area where Seychelle Beach is, like it was really windy, it was windy, it was a little rainy and damp, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah. And it didn't seem like it would be like that fun to sit out on a towel out there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

No, but the thing is, you guys, we were still we were gonna we were still planning on we were gonna push through. We were going to push through like we even stopped at like a little convenience store and bought an umbrella. You bought an umbrella, I brought uh I bought an umbrella and we took it to the beach and we couldn't find parking, and that was just the final straw. So I never got to use my umbrella, and it was like $20.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

It was like brand new, just never used, still in the plastic.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yep, that Airbnb has a really lovely umbrella now, but just keep that in mind as well. Get there early because the parking lots are small and you will not have a spot unless you want to drive uh like walk for miles to get down to there.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

But that being said, we turned the car around in that parking lot and we went to a small cafe to like get some coffee and like see if the weather got a little bit better. Yeah. And this is where you guys got really mad at me.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Brandon was trying to park the car like just like in the middle of the road.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Okay, because everybody in Madeira was parking in the middle of the freaking road. It was allowed.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

It wasn't allowed. It was allowed, they parked right in front of the place and there was no parking.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

There were three other cars parked right there.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Not where we wanted to park, though. They weren't right in front of the restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

They were right there.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Anyway, we made Brandon find a real parking spot.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

They all yelled at me in this car, even though they've seen cars literally parked in the middle of the road on every single road in Madeira. They were just like, no, Brandon, you can't do that. You're not a local.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

It was like a parking lot right up the street. Like, we walked like two minutes from the parking lot to the restaurant. That's not the point. It was, we wanted you to park in a real spot. We don't want to get towed. That would have not been great if we had gotten towed.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Like this random party.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Okay, maybe. But it wasn't that far away.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Okay. You guys, you can't park anywhere, I guess, even though it's literally everybody parking around.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Where it says you can park.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

But the point being, we went to this cafe and we got ourselves a little coffee and stuff like that and sat. Yeah. And the weather did start to get better. So I was like, I really enjoyed those natural pools, which I kind of had in the back of my head this major one that I wanted to go to, Port Portemoni's, which is one of the largest ones in Madeira. So I was like, that was kind of one of the pools I wanted to go to today. But we were sitting there and we discovered that there was another one, another one that was closer to us. And it was, what was it called? Oh gosh. Oh Lord have mercy. I'm trying to find it, you guys. Abby talk.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Well, this pool was like so. This is still pretty early in the morning-ish. Like it's like 10. 10, like 9:30, 10 o'clock. And um, so we pull up, and there was a lot of people here. There was like maybe like one other group of people that we could see because most people went down to that other area that we discovered like later. But where the first pool was, like, there was nobody in the water.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

No, okay. So the name of it is I'm not I'm gonna butcher this, but Pocas das Les Mas.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

That's it. I think I did okay on that one. Yeah, but like she said, yeah, there was like a parking lot and then a hill.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Oh yeah. Oh the hill was very steep.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Gosh, it was like straight down. Yeah, like this was the time, like if it was wet at all, and it had been damp that morning, and we were risking it all going down this hill.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Like, I was so afraid that we were just like, once you start, like you couldn't tell how steep it was until you already were going. You had to commit. And then you had to commit. There was no turning around on that hill.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So no, and then there's a small parking lot at the bottom of this hill, and it's small. So get there early again. Everything, yeah, you gotta get there early.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

And I think we paid for parking there too.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

We did, but it was only like five or ten dollars, wasn't it? Yeah, and it was worth it because that the walk down, because there was an extra walk down.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah, we've had two walks then.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

It was steep, yeah. Steep. But this natural pool was probably one of my favorite natural pools.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

It was just really chill, and I liked um mine and Emily, like you were taking pictures of us when we were in the pool, and there was like nobody else in there. It felt like such an influencer, even though not an influencer, but you know, those pictures are good. There was nobody else in the pool because it was still chilly, like you Skye didn't get in right away. Did she even get in?

SPEAKER_00 12:04

She she got in and I got in eventually, but we it was totally.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Like it was did not look comfortable at all. Just like snacks and watching us like swim in the pool.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

It was great. I had I was having a great time on my boulder.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

It's okay. It's like fine. Like once you're in, like once you're in, it was fine, but just getting over the threshold of like getting in. Getting in was a lot.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

But it was really I I really love this natural thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

It was just, it was really calm and quiet. I mean, I'm sure it gets more crowded, especially if it's warmer outside, because again, it's still pretty early and cold.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

But it was actually starting to get more crowded because the sun did finally show up and it was so pleasant. But we have to tell you about these stupid ass kids that were running around this pool. Okay, this was one of the only pools that we'd been to. We only went to three over our whole entire like trip in Madeira. This was one of the pools that actually had a lifeguard.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, this was yeah, the first time I saw a lifeguard. And this wasn't at the chill pool that me and Emily were in. There was like another back area that you had to walk to, which by the way really hurt our feet. Oh, yeah. Where's some sandals? Um, but this was like a separate area where most of the people were.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Yeah. And they were climbing all over these jagged ass rocks. Yeah, like the ocean is right there.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Like any wave could come in and like knock them off of those rocks.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

And I think that's why they have lifeguards because this was one of the more these were sharp rocks. Yeah. Like this was not something you'd be messing with. Don't do stupid things here because it's like you will find it.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Like they yelled at them when we got over there, but like he he said, like, again, he was like, guys, like get off the rocks. Like it was clear that he had they had already been told like to get off the rocks. Multiple times. And then, like, yeah, they got yelled at again while we were there, too. And I was just like, Can you listen?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Like, I think they were like, get out, actually.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Yeah, towards the end, they were like, You guys have to leave.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yes, because they were being stupid, but they didn't, they just went to the other pool and did the same stuff.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

It's like, what are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

You guys just like don't climb on the rocks.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

We're chaotic, but we're not stupid. Okay, well, I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I like climb on the rocks.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I don't know about that actually, if you've listened to all of our podcasts.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

So, what I also liked about this place is they had like a little bar. And again, it's like 10 o'clock in the morning, and me and Emily get out of the pool, and like the bar like just opened, and we were like, you know what we want? We want a pina colada in the pineapple.

unknown 14:37

Immediately.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

You had to drink them up at the top, though.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Yeah, you couldn't bring them in. But yeah, we sat up at the top and had our fun little drinks um at 10 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

The means guy finally got in. We just had a really great time.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

After you were eating your snacks. After I refused to let you eat my chips.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

I fucking hate you. You would not let me have your ruffles at all.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Okay, so I bought one bag of ruffles at the grocery store to snack on all day because I didn't know what the plants were for food. And every time you eat everything, you would have eaten the whole bag. So you were like, Did I have some of your ruffles? And I was like, um, no.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

She literally reaches into the bag and like hands me three chips, and that's it. And she's like, I'm almost out. And then, like, a couple hours later at the uh the other pool, like I look in the bag and it's a full fucking bag of chips. And I'm just like, you bitch.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

You want me to starve. You would have eaten a starve. You had your broccoli. I'm going to starve. No, you I didn't have my broccoli yet, did I? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you did. Oh my god, I have to do it. You had like a full-on, like raw, like huge thing of broccoli to eat.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

I really wanted some vegetables, okay? And I I saw the broccoli and I got a pepper too. I red pepper.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

You would have eaten all of my chips, and then I would have had no snacks for later. I was looking out for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Y'all, listen, she's not exaggerating. I bought a whole crown of broccoli. A whole crown of broccoli. I probably would have eaten half of them. So it was probably a really good move on your part. But I'm just eating my crown of broccoli, wanting some fucking buffers.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

You're just like sitting on the boulder like eating broccoli. It was like, what is wrong with you?

SPEAKER_00 16:14

It was so good.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

That was not even like dipped in anything. Like, at least dip it in like a ranch. Like, come on.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

No, I just wanted, I just wanted to feel healthy. And I had my broccoli and my red pepper. And it was like, I mean the red pepper's fine.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

The broccoli was just kind of wild to me, but you know, whatever. Okay, you didn't know. Anything to keep you away from my chips.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

So we're leaving this pool, and once again, what must what goes up must come down, but in reverse this time.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

So we had to go.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

What goes down must come up. And it was scary.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

That was a steep hill.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

You guys yelled so loud because I almost stalled stalled out at the top of the road.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Because you were stopping, and I was like, we cannot stop on this hill.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Because it was a blind turn. And I was like, oh my god, if we get hit by a car coming down at us, we will fly off this mountain.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

You couldn't stop though. The foot had to stay on the gas the whole time. And you were like, stop. We were like, no, keep going.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

It was so scary.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Because we were you if you stopped, we were just gonna go backwards.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

My anxiety was high on that hill.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, I wouldn't want to drive.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Like, okay, like we did the hike and the uh the drive up there was steep, but this was uh like unlike anything I've ever driven on. It was the steepest thing I've ever been on. And it was a one way road. It was a one-way it on a cobblestone. It wasn't even like it was not paved, it was cobblestone.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Oh, I think cobblestone would be easier to stop on, maybe I don't think so. I don't know, scarring, but we we made it out alive. We did, even though you were mad at us, you were like, stop killing the big roads.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Like this is not helping anything, but anyway, we're on our way to the biggest pool. The next Porto Monese.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yes. Did I say that right?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

That sounds right, but we had to stop and get more snacks. Yeah, we did go back to the grocery store, and I got some salami and some Swiss cheese. Yeah, and it was delicious, and it was such a vibe because we parked the car.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

We were just like walking around the town, just eating salami, like right from the bag.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

I would just be handing it out. Like the whole another piece, please. It was kind of like we were at Costco and you know the free samples. Like, do you would you like to have a try this?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Would you like this piece of salami? It was so good. I do love salami.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah, but then we ate our snacks. I think you guys still had snacks. Because Sky was making Sky was making like full-on sandwiches. Like you guys were having like sandwiches like bread, like mayo, other stuff in your sandwiches.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Or peppers. Yeah, cheese.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

You guys were having like a full-on meal.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Her like her cheetos with little soccer balls.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Yes. I well, it goes back to what we said in one of our Iceland episodes. Like you you don't understand where the food comes from. I know where it comes from because I know me and Skye. But like it will appear. It just like appears in in assembled form, too. It's not even assembled. It's not even the raw ingredients that you see. It just comes to you.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

You're just like, oh wow, sandwich.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Exactly. It's magic. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. Because me and Skye are so welcome. Thank you for sharing your food when I watch your big shit. Okay, anyway, you guys, Porto Monese.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

This was this was huge and crowded.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Huge and crowded. But you didn't feel overcrowded.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

No.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

No, but you did have to find your spot and claim it.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

But this pool was cool.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

This pool, the water was a lot colder, which I thought was interesting. But they also had that fun diving area for you guys. I did not do this one.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

This one was a little bit scarier than the uh the pool that we had gone to the day previously because this one was higher in the air. And this was more not a roped-off area in the ocean. It was like it was like the ocean.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

It was like it looked like it was difficult to swim.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

It was. This actually wore me out. So just be aware that it was like an actual diving board and it was much higher, and like the water can be more rough. Yeah. So if you're not prepared to like swim up to like the ladder to get back up, don't do this because you may put yourself at risk.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

I watched you guys, looked cool.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

It was so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

From the side lines.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

I loved it so much. But at we had to stop because we were wearing ourselves out, and it was becoming a situational, like, we may not get back up.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

It's okay. We had in the bigger part of the pool, they had just like a ledge, and you could sit on the ledge, and the waves would just like yeet you off the ledge.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Like they would crash you.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

It was great. We we were there for so long, just like sitting on the edge, like in a bunch of other like people. We're like all adults, like maybe a child there, but we're all just like, yay! And then the waves would come in and you would fly off the wall.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Because we were all trying to stay on the wall.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Yeah, you had to see who could stay on the longest.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

And I you did good too.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Emily and Skye did not do good. They kept on getting knocked off so easily.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

I got knocked off. I think I quit after because I was like holding on to the ledge that had like the rocks under it. And I like cut my finger open on the rock, and I was like, Okay, I'm bleeding.

unknown 21:34

We're done out.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

But it was so fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

It was. It just like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

I would I would go back to Madeira just to go sit on that ledge.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Honestly, I would go back to Madeira just to go to the pools.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

I loved this pool and all the other ones. It was such a good experience. And like, you just have to do it. Pool hop for a day, you guys. It's yeah, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

It was fun. And then we the Kept swimming around. Oh, if you want to get a chair, you have to also get there early and buy the chair.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

You do have to buy the chairs.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

We didn't have any chairs.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

But we did set up on this little like peninsula-looking thing in the middle of the water. And it was great. And Abby and Emily were so bewildered why I ate my broccoli.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

This time we didn't even have the head of broccoli. It was like the stem.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

It was so good. I have to eat the stem. Everything is edible.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

Yeah. But this was where I messed up because we were sitting in like direct sunlight. And this is where I this is where I got sunburned. I was doing so good about the sunscreen and not getting burned. And I got destroyed this day.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

You did.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

We were sitting out there for like we weren't even on there for that long. We there for like 45 minutes, like just sitting.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

And yeah, my back and shoulders, just on like one side though, got obliterated. That's fine though.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

How long did we stay at these pools? I think the first pool we stayed for about two, two and a half, three hours. And then at Port Port Porto Monese, we did about, I wanna say like three hours.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah. Because I mean it was pretty late by the time we actually got back to Madeira or that, or like where our Airbnb was.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

The thing is, you guys, it's not that expensive to go into these pools either.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

It's like super cheap.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

It's just fun.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Just do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Just like swim around.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

But that was the end of our pool day. Yeah. And we drove back to Fun Shaw with the idea of going on the cable car to the Mont Palace.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Yeah, we thought it was everything was going to plan. We're like, we're gonna go up there, we're gonna get the Mont Palace out of the way.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

And it's just gonna be action-packed day. We had relaxed pool, everything. Now we can see some history.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

We did not see anything.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, it's just known when we didn't have to wait in like any lines, and then we got right on the cable car and we went up, and then we get up there, and everything is closed.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

It was like something should have been including the cable cart.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Something should have.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

So we couldn't go back down on the cable car. Yeah, because we took the last cable car up.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Yeah, we took the last cable car up, so we couldn't go back down, and there was also nothing to see up there because everything was closed.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yes. Okay, but the sky is freaking out on the cable cards. Yeah. Bless her soul.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

The cable cards were cool though, because like we got a good view of everything, so that was nice.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

And it was calm. We were able to collect our thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

And I was able to purchase the tickets for the Mont Palace. And we wanted to go to specifically to the gardens, which uh keep in mind, you guys, there's two different gardens. There is the Mont Palace Gardens, which is right up the primary cable car exit. And then if you want to go to the other type of garden, which I think is just the Madeira Botanical Gardens, if I'm not mistaken, it's a separate cable car down to that area. So you get off the cable car and go left to the Mont Palace. You go to the right for the second cable car to take you to the botanical garden. So keep that in mind. We did not do the botanical garden because everything was closed, obviously. Yeah. But we did get the lay of the land. So don't do what we do and mistake the two for one because they're not.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

And I was worried because remember there was all those taxis like up there. I thought that the taxi was gonna be the only way for us to get down. And I was like, if we get in that taxi, we're gonna be overcharged like 100%. Because I was getting worried about us finding a bolt to go back. Because we did have to wait a while for a bolt to come and get us.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Because it's pretty high up on the hill.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

It's pretty high up there, which granted it's really pretty up there too, though.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yeah, no, great views. And there wasn't as many people like up there, so we could just kind of like walk around a little bit, but yeah, it would have been better if we've got the bolt palace, but it's like we we go back there eventually.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

We do the next day, but like get there earlier and actually do the activities up there in a timely manner. Don't do what we do.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, we went up and then we're like, okay, let's go. And then we went right back down.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

We did. And we're like, what do we do now? Because we were gonna fill up the day or the remaining portion of the day, which it's uh like 6:37 o'clock at night this time at this point when we get back down. And we decided, okay, let's go to Pancha. Let's go find a place that gives us poncha, which we need to discuss poncha, you guys. Okay. Poncha is Madeira's, I don't know if it's a liqueur or if it's a liquor. I think it's a more of a liqueur.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

But it's um passion fruit flavored, orange flavored, or something of that nature. I think it's a liqueur because you mix it with something, but it is dangerous, you guys. It tastes so good, and honestly, you could just drink it straight up, and it's so good. And we have a habit of finding the local liquor to drink. We haven't discussed it because we don't want you to think we're alcoholics, but low-key, we've been drinking this the whole entire time.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

We're not alcoholics. You guys only hear our stories about when we're on vacation.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah, yeah. During the normal work week.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

During normal work week.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

We stay under 14 beers.

unknown 27:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Okay, maybe happy.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

But point being, try the poncha. It's very good. It's very good. And try all the flavors too. And get it in different drinks because they mix it with mules, they mix it with margaritas, they mix it with everything. Mojitos, everything.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

It's just so good.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

And the other thing you guys need to try is the coral, which is the Madeira beer.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Actually, really tasty, especially on draft. It's so crisp. It like hits the right spot. So corral and poncha.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Yeah. So obviously at this point we're looking for alcohol.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Which, okay, in our defense, this whole entire day we did not have anything.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

I had a pina colada.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Oh, okay. Okay, maybe I didn't have anything. So I was doing good. Now is the time to reintroduce alcohol into the chat. Yeah. So we're at Madeira Rum House. Yeah. Which they had poncha, but we went there because they had poncha and other things.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah, which I they had wine, but it was port wine, and I I honestly didn't know what port wine was. I thought I was gonna get a nice glass of red wine. That was not the case. That was not the case. I think I had ordered it, and then Emily was just like, you know, that that's like not wine, right? And I was like, what?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

What do you say?

SPEAKER_01 28:32

So they put it down on the table. And first of all, there was a bug in it when they put it down. So I like told them and I thought they would, you know, like pour me a new one. They definitely didn't pour me a new one. They like took the glass and they went like back where I couldn't see them, and then they came back and gave it back. And I was like, they just like took the bug out. But it's fine. It's okay. And it like tastes like whiskey, or like it tastes like a dark liquor, and it was it was pretty. It was stout. It was too much for me. So Emily switched drinks with me, and she had the poor wine, and I had her sangria.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

I think me and Skye, we're at a rum house, so we're obviously gonna try the. So we got a flight of rum. Yeah, and that was actually really cool because it was all Mandarian rums that they make on the island. Because I think there is an actual factory on the island for rum, too. But we didn't go and see it, but it was some of the rum that came from that factory.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Do you remember Oh sorry?

SPEAKER_00 29:27

No, no, no, you're fine.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

I was gonna say, do you remember the little snack tray that we got? Oh my gosh. That was just like it reminded me of a lunchable. It was literally like they opened the lunchable. They opened the lunchable and like gave it to us. And it wasn't like pretty expensive, too. Like when we went to Bay, and I was like, what is this?

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Hey, no, don't get me wrong. We needed it, we needed it and it was good. And we're not saying anything bad about the Rum House.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Like, honestly, I mean we're there, we're there for the drinks, not the snacks. We were like, ooh, snacks, and then it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

They were better with the drinks than with the snacks. Yes, but honestly, stop there. It was pretty good. It was good. It was a good vibe on the day.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

We played mini Uno.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Okay. So Abby keeps a thing of Mini Uno.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

It's called Emergency Uno, and it's tiny and it's always in my purse.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

It came in handy.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Yeah, it always comes in handy at all times. Even what?

SPEAKER_00 30:18

So why did you start carrying emergency Uno?

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Oh, just for vibes initially, but then it's come in handy because I've gone on some pretty terrible dates. One time I went out with this guy, and look, he was just really boring. To put it bluntly. But I was trying to have a conversation, and I would keep asking him questions or like, you know, trying to keep the conversation going. And he would give me like one-word answers, didn't ask follow-up questions. And it just got to a point where there was nothing more I could do to keep the conversation going. Like I was like, okay, this is just weird now. So I pulled out emergency Uno and was like, you won't play Uno? And he was like, Yeah, and then we didn't talk the rest of the day and we just played Uno. So Emergency Uno. Pro tip. Pro tip. Pro tip fits in your purse. It's really small.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Or in your pocket.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah. Or you can and you can pull it out just to chill while you're having drinks.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

It was great. We were playing drunk drunk Uno.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

It is hard to shuffle though.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

It was a vibe. It was a vibe after the Mom Palace debacles.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

I have to get a new one though, because I accidentally put it in the washing machine and it got destroyed. So I need another mini Uno.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Oh my gosh, you guys. We sound crazy.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Okay, but Mini Uno and drinks, good done.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Yes. Check mark on everything. Yeah. Today. Like pools, excellent. The roads were not. That was an X. Um, snacks, on point.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Cable car, on point. Yeah. Mountain Palace. Okay. Well, we That was bad planning on our part. We can he go. So. And Alcohol and Uno.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

A plus. A plus.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

And then now we're gonna go get some food.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Which is the restaurant that we tried to get in the previous night, and they had to recommend Olivia's. So we went back and we got there early enough for us to actually get in this time. And it's called Restaurant Restaurante Informal.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Mm-hmm. So fucking good. Yeah. This place was really good.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Let me tell you guys. Okay. So we had for starters, it was the scallops.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

So they were pan seared.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

They were pan seared and they had like little fruit on top. Oh great. So good. The flowers. Little flowers or something.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

So delicious. They only give you four, but oh my gosh. Get the scallops pan seared with a little bit of garlic. And little flower just it's like the chef's kiss. Yes. And then we also got sauteed squid. My god, this sauteed squid was amazing. I want all the squid and the octopus in the world on my plate at all times from here on out.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Our main courses. What did we get? We got octopus.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah, I was like, take a guess.

unknown 33:09

Octopus.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

I think we started with the uh sauteed squid because we were like, okay, let's try something other than octopus.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Yeah, and then we just got octopus anyway.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

I will say the octopus was better than the squid.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Yes. Yes. But the octopus was really good. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Those little suction cups, like they they like take in like the little juices when they get a little crispy. And I just love everything about it. Sorry, you guys.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

The braised veal with mushroom risotto and dried tomatoes.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Okay, so we're obviously obsessed with mussels, octopus, and risotto. Yeah. If you guys have not.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Well, we became obsessed with risotto from Olivia's. We were like, wow, risotto is good. So we're like, let's get it again.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

And this was just as good. I still think I liked Olivia's better.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Yeah, Olivia's was better, but I mean It was so good. Mushroom risotto is always gonna hit.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

So okay, and side note for you guys, I'm not like a big sweets person.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Which is a red flag, but I'm just gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Every meal needs a sweet treat. The meal is not complete without a sweet treat.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

I was okay. I I just did not a sweet treat kind of person, but they decided to do a dessert tasting at this restaurant. And honestly, I think I did have like one or two bites of something.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

But like it was like a little sample of each of their desserts that they offer, which is like I think a seasonal cheesecake, terramisu, chocolate trilogy, and then like a honey cake. Yeah. And like they did look really good, but I I'm just not a sweets person. But you could talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

They were amazing. A sweet treat. It ended out the meal perfectly, and so many options. I think I don't know. I'm between the chocolate one and terramisu is my favorite. I'm gonna go chocolate because I always like chocolate. But they are very good.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Anyway, go to this restaurant, you guys. It was the perfect end to honestly an A plus day. Yeah. A plus. But you know what? We're done with dinner. It's like nine o'clock this night. We're like, we've been up since 7:30 and done like a million things like normal.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

And I feel like swimming just takes it out of you.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Jumping off that high dive really took it all out of me.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

And I feel like just like swimming around in general, it just wears you out.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

So we were responsible tonight. You guys need to give us a gold star.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Yeah, we went to bed. Look at us.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Like normal human beings.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

I think what we really did is we went back to the Airbnb and we sat and drank Pancha on the patio.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

But that's such a chill evening.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

That is actually chill for us, you guys.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

The beds were so close.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

So it worked out.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

We didn't have to travel far.

SPEAKER_00 35:44

So be proud of us. Give us a five-star rating on Podcast Apple or at Apple Podcast and Spotify Spotify. And other platforms. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. But that was the end of episode six. Yeah. And I think Portugal is shaping up to be an amazing trip. Yeah. A plus. We were so chill. As always, you guys, stay chaotic.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Stay chaotic. Love. Lovins.

Abigail Olson

Host

Brandon Poore

Host